The Mandatory Rate the last gig you Witnessed.

Ennui said:
Sounds awesome. Limp Bizkit being good live I find hard to believe but I trust your word. How were Opeth and Dream Theater in particular?
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Opeth were incredible as always, Mikael had some pretty humorous banter with the crowd as Motley Crue were up after them therefore there was an influx of their fans just stood there looking really bored and unamused so during the introduction he said they were Whitesnake and just generally took the piss, was great :D

Dream Theater were also amazing, Petrucci and Rudess had what felt like a 30 minute solo showdown together, was epic to watch a synth and guitar duke it out.

TheAntipop said:
Was Phil completely and utterly out of his face this time? He was so ****ed when they last played, but then so was I and it was like 11 in the morning, haha! Top band, top show.
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I don't think he was this year, he still had a hell of a lot to say and was spouting the usual bollocks he comes out with but it was all good. Their set was killer, highlight for me was definitely 'New Orleans Is A Dying Whore' sounded so damn chunky.
 
Yeah, sounds like Phil. I saw the setlist the other night and it just made me want Down to tour even more.

Or Eyehategod. Or Crowbar, or even if Superjoint Ritual got their arses into gear and did something, too... Man, any will do thanks.
 
Qonfused said:
Holy shit what I want to go
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Venetian Snares is going to be in Chicago and South Palm Beach FL iirc, I think my friends and I are going to the FL show but if we head up to Chicago instead (they're roughly the same distance from here) I'll let you know and maybe we could see it together :p KMFDM is coming to a tiny but awesome venue about a mile and a half from my apartment and I absolutely cannot wait to see them from 3 feet away in a room that doesn't hold more than 200 people or so. The Cat's Cradle it's called, SERIOUSLY small place, I'm uber psyched to see such a big act as KMFDM there.
nipples said:
Where are you seeing Tool at?
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Charlotte, NC at the Bojangles Coliseum. Hopefully it's a less cramped venue than the Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem NC where I saw them in 2007. Ideally it'd be like the Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville where I saw Phish, best large indoor venue I've been to.

This summer / early fall are so excellent in terms of live music for me. Les Claypoole, Phish, TV on the Radio, Nine Inch Nails, Jane's Addiction, Akron/Family, Tool, and KMFDM all within a few months. I missed Easy Star All Stars a few weeks ago and I think I'm going to pass on 311 with Ziggy Marley but those would both be great shows too I bet.
 
Ennui said:
Charlotte, NC at the Bojangles Coliseum. Hopefully it's a less cramped venue than the Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem NC where I saw them in 2007. Ideally it'd be like the Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville where I saw Phish, best large indoor venue I've been to.
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Right on. I'm seeing them on the 30th in Fairfax, VA.
 
That's the day after I see them. If you've never seen Tool before you're in for a treat. They put on one hell of a show, and their lights/lasers/screens beast the hell out of any other act I've seen, including Nine Inch Nails (esp. 06) and Radiohead, both of whom have insane visuals. I was stone sober last time but this year my friends and I will be getting a little Fear and Loathing on it if you follow my meaning. I'm completely ****ing thrilled that Tool is touring between albums, because that means I'm guaranteed to be able to see them again once they release their next one. High five!
 
It'll be the first time I've seen them and I hear their concerts are pretty much life changing. I'm going with two of the members of my band, we have another ticket but for some reason our drummer doesn't want to go. His loss.
 
Kode9 at Zen - YEAH AWESOME/15

This was good good good great. Totally unexpected set - I thought it would be mainly his stuff: minimal, bass heavy, reverbed and dubby. Totally wasn't - he played an incredibly varied set, from some wicked funky that I have never heard, into bass-heavy dubstep, into some brutal grime (Poison DARTTTTT) and then, most excitingly, about twenty minutes of absolutely ridiculous jungle, so cut up it sounded almost like Venetian Snares (but wasn't because 7/8). He's an incredibly good DJ - I was expecting competence, not awesomeness. He even dropped Parisian Goldfish by Flying Lotus at one point [swoons]. Only thing that could have made it better would have been a more chilled section in the middle, I admit I was really looking forward to hearing some Burial on a proper club system. Even the MC couldn't ruin this one!
 
Ennui said:
Venetian Snares is going to be in Chicago and South Palm Beach FL iirc, I think my friends and I are going to the FL show but if we head up to Chicago instead (they're roughly the same distance from here) I'll let you know and maybe we could see it together :p
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In 100% seriousness, this sounds like an awesome idea. I'd definitely travel on down to Chicago for that! :)
 
Ages ago, but Gn'R Chinese Democracy tour - 100/10
 
saw femi kuti and the positive force a few weeks ago. ive never seen anything like them before and probably wont. gotta love the afro beat. they were playing in this tiny bar/club and they had 14 people on stage all the time. pretty crazy.
 
Ska night at The Gilman-5/10
Opening bands were not to my liking but the last three, The Street Vendors, Maxwell Smart,and another band I don't remember the name of were pretty grood. Minus point(s) because my ears were still ringing 2 days later on account of the opening punk rockas.
 
going to see Killswitch Engage, Billy Talent, Rise Against, and Rancid this Thursday. Can't wait, because its been like 2-3 years since I've even been to a show.
 
I'm seeing Silversun Pickups, Manchester Orchestra and Cage the Elephant on the third. I'm really excited for it.
 
Tool on Wednesday. Can't wait, last time I saw them was awesome.
 
I was supposed to see tool this week. But tickets ran out right as my friend went to buy them. I was ****ing pissed.
 
nipples said:
I was supposed to see tool this week. But tickets ran out right as my friend went to buy them. I was ****ing pissed.
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can't you get scalped tickets?? what you do is go up to someone who has tickets, make them an offer, if they refuse, walk away and look for others, if not hold out a little bit longer but keep an eye on them. then when the show starts go ahead and buy them for cheap. also i used to sell tickets and i used to make a killing sometimes. being a salesmen off the clock still means i can be a good sales person
 
We could. But my friend found a few on eBay for the same price we were gonna pay. Not sure if we're going yet, our ride still has to let us know if he can make it.
 
TOOL - 10/10
Bojangles Coliseum, Charlotte, North Carolina

My second Tool show, and every bit as awesome as the first - possibly more because this time they played "Aenima" which is one of my favorite songs. Their light show is more impressive than any other band I've seen - including Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails who both had really kickass set ups (especially NIN's 2006 show in NC, the 2009 one was less awesome). Basically, if you like Tool at all, see them live - it's more of an experience than a show because they are so synergistic and well-practiced. Can't wait to see them again once they release their new album.

Setlist:

Jambi
Stinkfist
46 & 2
Schism
Lost Keys *new audio*
Rosetta Stoned
Flood
Aenema
Lateralus
Vicarious

Aenema was a serious highlight, the only song new to this tour and GODDAMN AWESOME. I was going nuts. Too bad Wings / 10,000 Days wasn't played this time around though.

Crappy cell phone pics:

bda10ba27635.jpg


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The opening band was "Tweak Bird" which was pretty good although I didn't see more than 15 minutes of them playing, so I'm not going to rate them.
 
65daysofstatic at Square Festival in Borth, Wales - 10/10

The festival itself was horrendous, or it was up until 65 took the stage and then left the stage. Bad organisation all around, and some horrible bookings that made no sense. If a band cannot pull more than 20 people in a small club, do not book them to be on early at an arena stage as the field will look nothing less than cringeworthy. Quite a few bands got quite arsey at the lack of people standing up or coming over to watch, but why should we? My biggest complaint, however, was the absence of something so simple but yet so important - times. I want to know when the bands I like are on and at one stage and not anywhere was there a timetable. Even the organisers I asked had no information, but I would of honestly gone out into the grounds with a pen and drawn the times up on a wall if someone had just gave me the very basics.

All that aside, 65 ****ing tore the place apart. I was a little skeptical about the crowd they would pull after seeing bands prior pull so little, but after racing to the barrier just in case of a surge I found I was right to be cautious but wrong to underestimate the booking - it was packed, and for all the right reasons.

I don't know how many people are familiar with 65daysofstatic here, they've been around for a while in the UK and have gained quite a bit of attention in the States and Japan recently so hopefully some folk know of the wonders they make. They play a strange mixture of noise, metal and electronica, all jumbled up into one great big mess of feedback, fuzz, atmospherics, breakbeats, cut-up glitchiness, odd time signatures and droning soundscapes. With so much going on, I thought the band might be quite laid back in their live presence what with the amount of laptops, keyboards, pedals and guitars on stage at the time but to my surprise they were probably one of the livliest bands I've ever seen. I haven't been to a gig in a long time - the last being Damnation fest in October 08 - so it was a bit of a shock being back at the front again next to the speakers, but I imagine even being a mile away you would still be deafened at the sheer volume of amplification 65 were using.

They ploughed through a setlist of popular favourites including This Cat is a Landmine (a personal favourite of mine), Retreat! Retreat! to the closing piano of Radio Protector. All of this was filled inbetween by lashings of improvised or home-studio-made electronic, noise and ambience to jump from one song to another - by all of this, I don't mean some simple beats and mixes, more of the rub-off from a huge Aphex Twin and Venetian Snares influence that is apparent in the bands records from over the years.

It's difficult for me to write about such a band and I'm no reviewer either, so I'll leave you with some pictures I took from the front. I tried to get a photo pass but I emailed them to late for the organisers to send them to me. More at my flickr (and more to come once my monthly limit resets...)

DSC_0366.jpg


DSC_0427.jpg


DSC_0195.jpg


DSC_0309.jpg


DSC_0499.jpg


More here
 
TheAntipop said:
65daysofstatic at Square Festival in Borth, Wales - 10/10
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Very cool! I'm not a huge fan of 65dos but I think it would be incredibly awesome to see Radio Protector live. I've seen a couple of pretty epic youtube videos of them live.
 
Yeah, Radio Protector was mindblowing. I don't know if the Youtube videos show the particular version they played at this set (though I suspect it's an on-going thing) but they played the intro really slow, with the piano section being much more drawn out and then everything came crashing, tumbling and billowing when the rest of the song started to pick up. If I recall, they added in a whole load of crazy snare rushes and jungle drum and bass elements into the intervals between segments. It was goddamn amazing.
 
TheAntipop said:
Yeah, Radio Protector was mindblowing. I don't know if the Youtube videos show the particular version they played at this set (though I suspect it's an on-going thing) but they played the intro really slow, with the piano section being much more drawn out and then everything came crashing, tumbling and billowing when the rest of the song started to pick up. If I recall, they added in a whole load of crazy snare rushes and jungle drum and bass elements into the intervals between segments. It was goddamn amazing.
Click to expand...

Ah, the videos I saw were from '06/'07... there's one where they have a screen behind them and project a film with stuff about global warming, and this one which I really like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qSptlkMuC8
 
Mark Pritchard (aka Harmonic 313) at Ink

This was... Weird. Of course he's a ****ing great DJ, playing ****ing great tunes, and the crowd got really into it. The crowd, however, was maybe 50 people. There wasn't a stage. The decks were basically at a continuation of the bar. As a result, the dancefloor was a metre wide, and 6 metres long. My friend made the apt comment that it was like a house party, with a really really excellent DJ. The highlight of the night was subtly dropping an entire deck of cards (the ones for 500, with 11, 12 and 13s) on the dancefloor through out the night. It was hilarious watching people just trip out as they suddenly noticed that there were playing cards EVERYWHERE. Out on the street I saw a guy handing out a small pile to his friends, all of whom were confused as ****. A girl found the queen of hearts and wore it in her hat for the rest of the night. A group of guys obsessively hunting for all the aces, and eventually finding the ace of spades where I'd hidden it in the bathroom.

Plus it was free

DEAR bFM I LOVE YOU DEARLY
 
saw Killswitch Engage, Rise Against, Billy Talent, Rancid, and whitechapel with a friend and it was amazing. I would have to say the destortion was pretty bad but since I knew 60% of the content I could understand it. Yesterday flew by so fast, and I had no sleep the day before the show which is crazy why I'm not dead tired today.

And I'm a light drinker but managed to down 10 beers before the show, then recorded 4GB of video in the concert, drank about 3 more beers in the beer tent, went to a strip club and had even more. I made another thread because it was a wild night, but overall the concert was amazing. Basically the stripper bled on me and I didn't realize this until I got to my friends car.

9/10
 
Saw Mogwai, The Black Keys, and MGMT at All Points West.

Mogwai was great although they're alot better in smaller venues since they get a chance to play there softer stuff. I had never actually heard of The Black Keys and was surprised. They were really good, and I'll definitely try to catch them if they roll around NYC. MGMT was alright, im not a huge fan but it was entertaining so I can't complain.

Overall the festival was pretty ****ing awesome aside from the ankle deep mud so

8/10
 
Ahh wish I could see both 65dos and mogwai!! so very jealous. My brother just saw explosions in the sky a couple weeks back, I was so dissapointed I didn't make it out to chicago to see them.
 
Prog Nation '09 just outside of Baltimore, MD.

****ing amazing show. 10/10. Dream Theater rocked. It was two days ago and my ears are still ringing.
 
TheAntipop said:
65daysofstatic at Square Festival in Borth, Wales - 10/10

The festival itself was horrendous, or it was up until 65 took the stage and then left the stage. Bad organisation all around, and some horrible bookings that made no sense. If a band cannot pull more than 20 people in a small club, do not book them to be on early at an arena stage as the field will look nothing less than cringeworthy. Quite a few bands got quite arsey at the lack of people standing up or coming over to watch, but why should we? My biggest complaint, however, was the absence of something so simple but yet so important - times. I want to know when the bands I like are on and at one stage and not anywhere was there a timetable. Even the organisers I asked had no information, but I would of honestly gone out into the grounds with a pen and drawn the times up on a wall if someone had just gave me the very basics.

All that aside, 65 ****ing tore the place apart. I was a little skeptical about the crowd they would pull after seeing bands prior pull so little, but after racing to the barrier just in case of a surge I found I was right to be cautious but wrong to underestimate the booking - it was packed, and for all the right reasons.

I don't know how many people are familiar with 65daysofstatic here, they've been around for a while in the UK and have gained quite a bit of attention in the States and Japan recently so hopefully some folk know of the wonders they make. They play a strange mixture of noise, metal and electronica, all jumbled up into one great big mess of feedback, fuzz, atmospherics, breakbeats, cut-up glitchiness, odd time signatures and droning soundscapes. With so much going on, I thought the band might be quite laid back in their live presence what with the amount of laptops, keyboards, pedals and guitars on stage at the time but to my surprise they were probably one of the livliest bands I've ever seen. I haven't been to a gig in a long time - the last being Damnation fest in October 08 - so it was a bit of a shock being back at the front again next to the speakers, but I imagine even being a mile away you would still be deafened at the sheer volume of amplification 65 were using.

They ploughed through a setlist of popular favourites including This Cat is a Landmine (a personal favourite of mine), Retreat! Retreat! to the closing piano of Radio Protector. All of this was filled inbetween by lashings of improvised or home-studio-made electronic, noise and ambience to jump from one song to another - by all of this, I don't mean some simple beats and mixes, more of the rub-off from a huge Aphex Twin and Venetian Snares influence that is apparent in the bands records from over the years.

It's difficult for me to write about such a band and I'm no reviewer either, so I'll leave you with some pictures I took from the front. I tried to get a photo pass but I emailed them to late for the organisers to send them to me. More at my flickr (and more to come once my monthly limit resets...)

DSC_0366.jpg


DSC_0427.jpg


DSC_0195.jpg


DSC_0309.jpg


DSC_0499.jpg


More here
Click to expand...



I love you.
I wish I was there.













I saw NiN at Manchester!! It was brill. End of review.
 
ohhh gawd...going to Crue Fest 2 and it has Motely Crew, Godsmack, Theory of a Deadman and a few others on the 5th of Sept last day of tour. should be epic!
 
Silversun Pickups, Manchester Orchestra and Cage the Elephant - 10/10
Rams Head Live, Baltimore, Maryland

Wow. ****ing incredible.

Cage the Elephant was up first, they played great and were really into it. During the last song, the singer climbs up on a bunch of amps to reach the second level of the place. He finished the song up there and when it was over, he climbed out onto a little beam and dove 15 feet into the crowd.

Manchester Orchestra played great and had a great stage presence. I really liked when they played their song, The River, which seemed like they extended. Fantastic.

Silversun Pickups. I don't even know what to say, they were that good. A very excellent setlist. They left the stage but ended up coming back for three more songs. I was close enough to the stage to shake the frontman's hand. Afterwards, my friends and I went outside to the parking garage our car was in and noticed the tour buses in front of the garage. We stuck around outside for awhile and managed to meet the frontman and bassist of SSPU. My friend and I talked about our band to the frontman and when I met the bassist, I didn't know what to say to her. I felt silly. But I got her to sign my ticket and I got a picture with her.

We also got lost on the way back. It took us two and a half hours instead of an hour and fifteen minutes to get home.
 
Wow this has to be most successful thread \o/ Anyway...

Blur - MEN Arena, Manchester - 10/10

It was actually about a month or so ago but what the hell. I wasn't optimistic that it would be a fantastic gig if I'm honest when first walking to take my seat (yeh I was late to the tickets so had to sit) but I was totally blown away. They were one of the first bands I started listening to and have slowly become one of my favorites. Albarn's enthusiasm and energy on stage for someone of his age was incredible, I mean just when I saw it all he only did a full on stage dive into the crowd during a song, and that just after I was thinking how temping it would be to do that.

They played more or less all their best songs, and even a few I didn't recognize which surprised me, Coxon's guitar playing was brilliant, with Trimm Trabb (couldn't believe they played that), Out of Time, This Is A Low, Badhead, The Universal and Beatlebum being the most memorable songs of the night.

Only drawback was the annoying occurance of people around you trying to join in the singing and being completely off key, when you are standing the sound level kinda drains all that out, being that we were sitting their bloody singing was blocking albarns out and really did my head in, I mean if you are going to sing, sing in bloody key! And we had this fat lady sitting in front of us wiggling about in what I suppose was 'dancing', at first it was hilarious and my mate actually averted his camera phone from the stage to her at one point, but eventually it just got annoying. So we ended up harassing her, she would scream at the stage after every song, so we would scream right behind her, she eventually turned around to our 'what?' expressions haha.

Although doesn't detract from the score because was hardly the bands fault. I'm am just so glad these guys are back together, Albarn and Coxon only shine when they work together, been saying that for ages, (even though The Good, The Bad and the Queen and Happiness in Magazines were great albums) think they finally released that.
 
just got back from quite possibly the best concert ill ever see.

first i said roger waters playing dark side of the moon in 2007 was the best id ever see. then i saw phish in june and it blew my mind. however, i knew there was one show that could beat them all: paul mccartney. holy **** does this guy know how to put on a show. never before have i seen anybody handle a crowd the way he did. i mean, ****, the dude's 67 years old and he hit every single note. his backing band kicks ass too. he's got this samoan drummer who's insane. the highlight of the show was by far hey jude, as i expected. he had all of boston singing that song, it was pretty emotional. mgmt opened for him, but unfortunately their sound was way out of balance and it was hard to really listen to them, but they were still good. an odd choice considering the crowd, which consisted mostly of 50+ year olds. i dont care though, this concert was ridiculously mind blowing and was well worth the $99.

Setlist:

01. Drive My Car
02. Jet
03. Only Mama Knows
04. Flaming Pie
05. Got to Get You Into My Life
06. Let Me Roll It (w/ Foxy Lady)
07. Highway
08. The Long and Winding Road
09. My Love
10. Blackbird
11. Here Today
12. Dance Tonight
13. Calico Skies
14. Mrs. Vandebilt
15. Eleanor Rigby
16. Sing the Changes
17. Band on the Run
18. Back in the USSR
19. I'm Down
20. Something
21. I've Got a Feeling
22. Paperback Writer
23. A Day In the Life (w/ Give Peace a Chance)
24. Let It Be
25. Live and Let Die
26. Hey Jude

Encore #1
27. Day Tripper
28. Lady Madonna
29. I Saw Her Standing There

Encore #2
30. Yesterday
31. Helter Skelter
32. Get Back
33. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
34. The End
 
Lost Prophets - Academy 1 - Manchester - 7/10

I wasn't exactly excited about this gig, but I'm a fan so I felt I had to witness them properly live, since when I saw them at V fest last year all they seemed to do was talk rather than play music. The set itself was good, and the new songs from their next album sounded very good. It wasn't anything groundbreaking though and I doubt I would go and see them again live.

What really annoyed me though is right at the end they started slagging Radiohead off, because they are playing before them at the Reading/Leeds festival this weekend, I mean they had a chuckle about it at first and then the bassist started playing the start of Paranoid Android and Ian Watkins turns around and says 'stop playing that shit haha'.

They think its clever but it all it does it makes them like complete idiots and complete dicks. They have absolutely no right whatsoever to slag Radiohead off, considering they are 10x more famous than they will ever be and contain 10x more talent than they will ever have, and the fact that 50 years from now Radiohead will still be remembered as one of the pioneering talents to come out of the UK and OK Computer still up there as one of the greatest albums ever made, no one will remember Lost Prophets that far along.

Jog on Ian Watkins...
 
Rufus Wainwright

A friend got some tickets dropped in his lap so we drove up to Portland, Maine to see Rufus last night at an Auditorium. It was a really great show. He made a few mistakes here and there, but had a really good sense of humour about it. And, man, seeing him do Cohen's Hallelujah live is just fantastic.

And all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
 
Mono/Maserati - 7/10

Saw them at The Local 506 in Chapel Hill, NC (thought of you ennui ;)) about a week ago. Maserati opened for Mono and while they had a couple of songs I liked, they were just far too repetitive for me to really enjoy them. Perhaps that's just their style, but it isn't mine. Mono was great, and it was a joy to finally see them live, however the music was just far too loud to be fully enjoyed. The climax parts of the songs of both bands were loud to the point that the melodies were almost completely drowned out. The venue is the size of a small bar, there's no reason to have the volume set to 11. My ears were ringing for a couple of days afterwords. I don't know who was at fault there (or even if it was just me) but it really sucked some of the enjoyment out.
 
Why? - 9/10

I love small venues. I feel that fact is necessary when thinking about my rating.

It was at a bar thing called The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, MI. It took us about two and a half hours to get there. It was awesome. This place had so much personality. The bathrooms which were absolutely disgusting had shit all over the walls and had trough-like urinals. Maybe this description isn't necessary but, again, the venue was really ****ing cool.

The first opening band, Dark Dark Dark, was pretty ****ing cool. It was kinda odd with no percussion through their entire set, but the combination of folky singing with a piano, accordion, trumpet and guitar was really cool. People were talking rather loud through their set which was rude and the lead singer actually made a comment regarding that. Their style was completely different than most music I've heard so it was refreshing.

The second opener was very meh. Called AU, it was a lot of noise with fast paced drumming and screaming. It really didn't hold my attention.

Then Why? took the stage. God, was it awesome. The entire crowd was in to it and it was really us just singing along with Yoni. He was laughing, making jokes in between songs. It was really homey, as if we were all just relaxing in a house, playing some music together. The set list was solid, a good mix of new stuff from their new album and older songs. They actually played a song from Hymie's Basement (which is a duo of Yoni and a DJ named Andrew Broder) which was really ****ing awesome as I love Hymie's Basement. Wolf on drums was awesome, too. His drum set includes a full xylophone which is just bad ass.

I was having a really shitty weekend, me hitting a deer and ****ing up my car among other things that happened, and Yoni and crew really took my mind off everything.

Oh, and I got a sweet t-shirt.
 
staticprimer said:
Mono/Maserati - 7/10

Saw them at The Local 506 in Chapel Hill, NC (thought of you ennui ;)) about a week ago. Maserati opened for Mono and while they had a couple of songs I liked, they were just far too repetitive for me to really enjoy them. Perhaps that's just their style, but it isn't mine. Mono was great, and it was a joy to finally see them live, however the music was just far too loud to be fully enjoyed. The climax parts of the songs of both bands were loud to the point that the melodies were almost completely drowned out. The venue is the size of a small bar, there's no reason to have the volume set to 11. My ears were ringing for a couple of days afterwords. I don't know who was at fault there (or even if it was just me) but it really sucked some of the enjoyment out.
Click to expand...

Awesome, I went to a Mono show a few years ago (with World's End Girlfriend opening). Everyone says they're really loud, so I was kinda confused that I didn't notice it that much. I must already be half deaf even though I've only been to like 6 concerts ever.
 
Ween - The Grove at Anaheim - 7/10

Went to this concert about a month ago. The band is obscure, offbeat, and of the people who actually know of them, most people would respond, "They're still around!?" However, a smallish venue like The Grove still got packed fairly well as I looked around to check. I guess enough fans got the memo.

Anyway,

The performance was a bit of a letdown. Dean, the lead guitarist, goes on these long, noisy jam sessions in the middle of songs (usually doubling the length of any song he embellished) and consequently shortened their setlist a bit. There were a lot more songs I would have liked them to play. This was my primary complaint, doubled with a dose of what I can only describe as unprofessional behavior. During these jam sessions, Gene, the singer, would light a cigarette and oftentimes stroll completely offstage somewhere while Dean kept going at it. In fact, the two of them chain-smoked nearly the entire night. I thought it kinda ruined the pace of the concert.

A third of the songs they played were ones I hadn't heard before (newer stuff) but they did many of my favorites. I can't complain about their set choices; including some stuff from every album is normal.

Best highlight: Dean-lead songs which got the crowd going ("Piss Up A Rope") or I just love the energy of ("Johnny On The Spot") and Dean's always-awesome instrumental ("A Tear For Eddie"). Best audience participation, thanks to Gene, was "Booze Me Up And Get Me High," which is a great concert sing-along song.

Biggest fail: on "Don't Get 2 Close 2 My Fantasy," the singer decided to bail the group out of the final band-wide a cappella chorus for whatever reason, and moved on, leaving the crowd confused. It was like he just lost interest or something.

Hey, at least he's lost weight from the smoking.
 
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